November: The numbness setting in


We’re almost to the end of our 2017 ‘year of the sociopath’ recap! At this point, the general public has started to wear down, and the maniacs in charge took the chance to ramp up the anti-people movement. They wanted to bring big gifts to the wealthy for the holidays, and so we saw the FCC ignoring public outcry to preserve net neutrality, and congressional Republicans began their best push toward historically corrupt tax reform.

 

  • The Paradise Papers leak exposed aggressive tax dodging by rich people and businesses throughout the world, such as Apple, Nike, presidential cabinet members, Bono, Madonna, and the Queen of England.
  • In Canada, Justin Trudeau apologized for decades of the Canadian government removing LGBTQ people from their jobs.
  • The invisible US wars in Africa ramped up, as the US launched airstrikes in Somalia for the first time. The guy who told the news about it had to do it anonymously, which should be more concerning but people don’t care.
  • Mass shooting: A veteran with a history of violence, mental problems, and 4 guns went on a shooting spree at a church in Texas. 26 people died, followed by a chorus of sociopaths who wanted to make sure we didn’t try to restrict guns afterwards.
  • Danica Roem became the first transgender citizen to be elected to a US state legislature.
  • Innocents in Yemen continue to suffer from severe famine thanks to Saudi Arabia’s** war and blockade. The war in Yemen is actually a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
  • They had to shut down schools for a week in Delhi, India, because of pollution that caused toxic smog.
  • The latest National Climate Assessment concluded that global warming is “extremely likely” (with 95 to 100% certainty) to be human-caused, mostly from the burning of fossil fuels. The Trump administration didn’t believe it.
  • At a summit in Germany, 19 countries pledged to phase out coal as a source of energy. The US wasn’t one of them, because renewable energy is a threat to the oil industry.
  • The #MeToo movement continues, as charges of sexual misconduct hit more rich dudes, including George Bush Sr, Charlie Rose, Russell Simmons, Al Franken and Roy Moore. Franken was eventually forced to leave the senate, and Moore (barely) lost a race for an Alabama senate seat* in the following month.
  • Uber was forced to admit that hackers stole personal information, which affected 57 million people across the world. The worst part, was that they paid the hackers $100,000 to keep it quiet, and we still don’t know who the hackers were.
  • Reports came out that President Trump asked Senate members to end their investigation into Russian election interference.

 

Footnotes are for people in the far future.

*Despite being accused of sexual misconduct with 9 teenagers, Roy Moore (who defended himself by appealing to the religious) won the higher percentage of votes among the majority in Alabama. It took a very strong showing from minorities for him to lose the election.

**The US supports Saudi Arabia in their war in Yemen, even though it is creating one of the worst humanitarian crises in recent history. Even our corrupt Congress doesn’t agree with our activity there.